What she wants
by pcworth
Summary: Takes place after Dorothy and Ruby share their TLK and Dorothy begins to wonder why Emma seems so interested in their relationship. Ignores canon after that episode. Swan Queen all the way
1. Chapter 1

"Your friend is looking over here at us again," Dorothy pointed out.

Knowing she was referring to Emma, Ruby quickly glanced over but didn't see where Emma was paying any attention to them. In fact she had her head down, staring more at her hot chocolate than anything going on in the diner.

"I'm not sure who I should be more concerned about," Ruby said. "You for thinking Emma is stalking us or her if she actually is."

"First off all I never said she was stalking us, only that she seems to watch us whenever we are together. Secondly, I think you should ask her about it," Dorothy said. "You said you two were friends and I don't know, maybe the idea of you dating a woman is bothersome to her."

"Emma is one of the most accepting people I know," Ruby insisted. "I promise you she isn't bothered by me dating a woman."

"Then maybe she is bothered by you dating a woman that is not you."

Ruby had been leaning over the counter in front of her girlfriend but now she leaned back. "What?"

"I'm telling you, there is something about you and I that has attracted her attention. I think you should talk to her."

"Ok, I will talk to her, but not now while we're in the middle of the diner," Ruby said. "Later, I promise. And I promise you, she isn't upset with me dating a woman and she isn't upset that I'm not dating her. She has been in this funk since returning from the Underworld. She's bummed you know. I mean she went all that way to get Hook back and she leaves empty handed."

Dorothy looked over at Emma, who did seem depressed, and then turned back to Ruby. "Maybe she just needs a friend. You and I have been spending a lot of time together."

"And I plan to spend more time with you," Ruby smiled. "But I'll talk to her.

It was four more days before Ruby found the time to talk to Emma. She had purposely waited some in order to find a time when Emma would be home alone so they wouldn't be interrupted. While she didn't think that Dorothy was correct in that Emma didn't approve of their relationship or perhaps wanted to be in a relationship with her, she did think it was time to find out what was wrong with Emma. It wasn't as if she hadn't noticed it, hell, there was practically a running competition in town between who was more depressed – Emma or Regina.

The Underworld had been rough for both ladies and both ended up without their respective men when it was all said and done.

Ruby hadn't even seen Regina in weeks. The word around town was that she had pretty much been seen at work or otherwise not at all.

She wasn't about to poke her nose in Regina's business but Emma was fair game in her mind.

Knocking on the door, she hoped this conversation didn't turn out to be uncomfortable.

It took several knocks before Emma was opening the door.

"Ruby?" Emma said. "Is something wrong?"

"Does something have to be wrong for me to come visit a friend?"

"No. It's just … come on in."

Emma stepped aside for Ruby to enter and they ended up sitting on the couch in the main room. There was an open beer on the coffee table in front of them but from the looks of it, Emma hadn't drunk very much. Ruby noticed the television wasn't on there weren't any books or anything out which made her wonder what Emma had been doing before she arrived – if she was doing anything.

"How are things, with Dorothy I mean?" Emma asked.

"Good," Ruby said, unable to keep the smile from her face whenever she thought of Dorothy. "Really good. I can't remember being this happy."

Emma reached for her beer. "That's great. I'm happy for you," she said, taking a drink. "I mean you found your true love and that's not something everyone gets to do. You should feel very lucky and make sure you tell Dorothy you love her like every day so she knows it too."

Ruby grabbed the bottle of beer out of Emma's hand before she could take another drink and put it down on the table. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What?" Emma asked. "What did I do? I just said I was happy for you and Dorothy, is something wrong with that?"

"There is nothing wrong with that, what I am trying to figure out is what is wrong with you. Don't take this the wrong way, but did Hook really mean that much to you?"

"What does he have to do with this?"

"Ever since you got back you have been walking around this town like someone has been repeatedly kicking your puppy," Ruby said. "I'm sorry he chose to stay behind with this brother, but it was his choice. It wasn't a reflection of you or your relationship with him, it was about him. Like everything else in his life."

Emma remained quiet and Ruby thought she may have been a little too harsh. She wanted her friend to snap out of whatever this funk was that she was mired in.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said when Emma still wasn't talking.

"I know Killian choosing to stay behind wasn't about me," Emma said. "I didn't get it at first but I do get it. If anything I feel like I should feel more about it, but I don't. He and I – our relationship would never have worked out. I don't even know what I was thinking exactly when I thought it would. He wasn't what I wanted in the person I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Ruby could see the sadness practically flowing from Emma which made her doubt what Emma had said. If she knew that Killian wasn't the one for her, why was she acting like she had lost the "one."

"Clearly something has got you down. If it's not Killian, what is it?"

Emma shrugged for an answer.

Ruby sighed, "We're friends Emma, whatever it is, you can tell me, I won't judge."

Emma picked up the beer again and took a massive drink. She gave Ruby yet another shrug. "It'll pass. I mean I just came back from hell, don't I deserve some time."

"Of course you do," Ruby said, deciding not to bother to tell her that it had been nearly three months already. "I'm just worried about you is all."

"I appreciate it, but I'm good." She drank the rest of her beer and stood up. "I'm good."

Emma began to head toward the kitchen to throw away the empty bottle and Ruby stood up as well.

"You know Dorothy doesn't know you that well, or at all really, but she was is the one who asked me to come speak to you."

Emma turned back toward her, "why?"

"It's kind of funny actually," Ruby said. "She thought you had been staring at us – me and her when we are together – and at first she thought that maybe you were against her and I being together – you know that you might be opposed to a same-sex relationship."

"That's ridiculous," Emma said.

"I told her that was the case. It was only slightly less crazy than her other theory."

"What was her other theory?"

"It was laughable quite frankly. Like I said, she doesn't know that you that well, but she thought maybe you kept looking at us because you were upset because you wanted to be with me."

Emma started laughing, which set Ruby off laughing.

"I told her there was no way that you were into me," Ruby said, still laughing. "You aren't are you?"

"No, I'm not. Sorry if that offends your ego," Emma said, giving her first real smile.

"It doesn't but thanks for checking."

Ruby followed Emma into the kitchen as she threw away her bottle.

"You know, Dorothy wasn't exactly wrong. You have been sort of looking in our direction lately."

"Am I not allowed to look at a friend who is obviously happy? Someone in this town should be."

There was a hint of bitterness in the last statement.

"I think there are a lot of people in this town who are happy," Ruby said. "Life isn't perfect, but collectively I think we're doing alright."

"Yeah, tell that to Regina."

Ruby cocked her head to the side, studying Emma for a moment before speaking. Regina had lost Robin in all of this and while it was in no way Emma's fault, Ruby now wondered if Regina blamed Emma. "Have you spoken to Regina much since you got back?"

"No. I mean I have but it is mostly about you know when to pick up Henry and stuff like that."

"Is she shutting you out like she is everyone else?"

That got Emma's attention. "What do you mean shutting everyone else out?"

"Regina has been MIA for weeks. She goes to work and meetings, but she hasn't been in the diner in I can't tell you how long and from what I hear she hasn't been much of anywhere outside of work. I think we all assumed she is tore up over Robin."

"I imagine she is," Emma said. "After all, I promised her a happy ending and I failed to deliver."

"Emma, it's not your fault," Ruby said. "If she's avoiding you because she can't see that, well, then to hell with her."

"Isn't it? My fault, I mean. I'm the one who had to go all Savior like and make a promise to bring her a happy ending and now she ain't got nothing. And she's not avoiding me, I'm avoiding her."

"Why?"

"I can't imagine she would want to see me anyway."

….

Ruby returned home to Dorothy who was reading a book on the couch.

"How did it go?"

"Oddly," Ruby said, sitting down next to her. "I think you might have been right. Emma has been looking at us with a bit of jealousy."

Dorothy put down the book. "You mean she wants to be with you."

"No, not jealousy like that. More like she wants what we have – a happy ending. And I think I know who she would like that happy ending to be with. Unfortunately I don't think she has a clue that she's even in love."

"Who is she in love with?"

"Regina."


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby had given a lot of consideration about what to do about her realization that Emma was in love with Regina. She of course wanted her friend to be happy first and foremost but how to achieve that happiness was not something with an easy answer.

For one, while Emma was in love with Regina, she had no idea how Regina felt about Emma. Yes, she knew they had grown closer before all of this Hook/Underworld nonsense. But Regina had been with Robin who was supposed to be her soul mate.

Then there was the matter of Regina having shut herself off from the rest of the world. There had been several reactions to it – one, being who did seem to feel genuinely sorry for her, and two, those who were afraid she was going to Evil Queen again and was biding her time while working on another curse. Thankfully that camp didn't appear to be very large.

Still, approaching Regina directly didn't seem to be the best of ideas at this point. After discussing it with Dorothy they decided to bring in an intermediary. Her first instinct was Henry, but Dorothy argued against involving Emma's and Regina's son at this point. After all, Dorothy pointed out, if they put the idea in his head that Emma was in love with Regina without knowing how Regina felt about Emma, it could lead to trouble quickly. Plus they had no way of knowing if Henry would be agreeable to the idea of his mothers being together.

In the end it was Ruby who finally decided who the best intermediary was, but it too held its issues. The only person she could think of who might be able to go talk to Regina – outside of Emma – was Snow.

She had been educating Dorothy on who was in who in Storybrooke and it took a while to get through the Snow-Regina story and after the telling Dorothy looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting Snow.

But Ruby knew that Snow cared for Regina – wanted her to be happy which made her the logical choice. Besides, Ruby pointed out she had no intention of telling Snow just yet that her daughter may be in love with Regina. No, what they needed now was someone to make contact with Regina, see how she was doing and knowing Snow like she did, Ruby knew good or bad Snow would end up talking about it. That meant Emma hearing about it.

What they really needed was Emma to approach Regina, but the way things were now that wasn't going to happen, which meant Emma needed motivation to do it.

First though Ruby had to lay the foundation with Snow.

She invited Snow to come to the diner while she had a break – using the excuse that they hadn't gotten to sit and chat lately. Snow brought Neal with her and Ruby was holding him as they talked about how things had been progressing with Dorothy and how happy Ruby was.

"I talked with Emma last week," Ruby said, opening up to what she really wanted to talk about. "How do you think she is doing, I couldn't get a real feel for it?"

Snow sighed, "I think she is still terribly upset about Killian. They really loved each other."

Ruby resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Snow could at times be oblivious, which was part of what made her perfect for this mission Ruby wanted to send her on.

"I'm sure she will still find her happy ending," Ruby said. "I mean I didn't think I would ever fall in love again, but look at me."

"True," Snow said, her voice reaching that optimistic tone she was known for. "There is plenty of time for Emma to fall in love again."

"I'm not sure the same can be said for Regina," Ruby offered up.

Snow, who had been nursing a cup of coffee took a sip of it, and appeared to be studying it. Finally, she looked up at Ruby. "She's locked herself in the mansion, you know that right?"

Yep, Ruby thought, here is the Snow that can't help but know everyone's business.

"I had heard that yes. I haven't seen her in here in I can't tell you how long."

"That's because all she does is go to work and go home. As far as I know Henry is the only person who has been in the house since we returned from the Underworld."

"Has he said how she is doing?"

"Not really," Snow said. "He said she is sad but that is to be expected."

"So you haven't gone to see her?"

"Me?"

"Yes you," Ruby said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You two have buried the past in the past and I thought you two were close."

"We are," Snow said. "But I think she just needs some time to herself."

"I don't know," Ruby countered. "You know how she is, she hasn't had a lot of people in her life that she is close to so maybe she doesn't know how to reach out to ask for help or just someone to listen. I'm sure you would be on the top of that list if she did."

"Well, yes, she and I are close and maybe you are right, maybe this is just her not knowing how to reach out for help," Snow said. "I should call her."

"Or go see her," Ruby suggested. "You won't really know how she is doing unless you see her face to face."

….

Regina had never really had a lot of visitors to her home and even less recently so when the doorbell rang she was a little surprised. Setting down the book she was reading, she rose from the couch and opened the door to a smiling Snow White.

"Hi," Snow said.

"Is there something wrong?" Regina asked immediately as she assumed that was the only reason Snow would be on her doorstep.

"We thought we would come for a visit."

The "we" was her and little Neal and before Regina could say anything both of them were inside so she merely shut the door behind them.

"To what do I owe this visit?" Regina asked, leading the way into the main room where she took her seat back on the couch. To her surprise Snow also sat on the couch. She held Neal on her lap as the child played with some stuffed dog. For the life of her she couldn't figure out why Snow would be here.

"First of all, let me say how sorry I am that I hadn't come sooner. I should have, but I thought giving you some space after all that happened was the wisest course," Snow said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine."

"No, really how are you?"

"I'm fine," she repeated.

"You haven't been out of the house except to go to work," Snow said. "That isn't you being fine."

"I didn't realize my comings and goings were a concern of anyone's but mine."

"Well they are," Snow said resolutely. "We've come too far for you to start shutting people out now."

Regina watched Neal moving in his mother's arm as he had dropped the dog on the couch and was now trying to recapture it. She thought of Henry and how he was at that age. She reached for the stuffed animal and held it out for him to grab, which he did, immediately hugging it to his chest.

"How has Emma been?" Regina asked.

If one of the Charmings were to show up at her door, she would have expected it to be Emma. But she hadn't heard from the other woman except for things as they pertained to Henry.

Snow seemed surprised that she was asking after her daughter, but answered anyway. "She's been quiet lately. I think like you she's still grieving."

Regina resisted to urge to point out that Emma was grieving after a man who had chosen to stay in the Underworld rather than return here and be with her whereas Robin and her never had a choice.

"Then why aren't you with your daughter bringing her what comfort you can?"

"Emma will be ok. She is strong."

"And I'm not?" Regina said getting to her feet. "Is that why you are here, because you think I can handle having my heart broken? By now I'm an expert at it."

"Regina," Snow said. "I didn't come here to upset you. I just came to see how you are doing and to let you know when you are ready, there are people outside that door who are concerned about you."

Regina didn't say anything at first. She again let her eyes go to Neal. She wondered if Emma would have been like him when she was a baby. She felt sadness invade her heart knowing that she was the reason Snow didn't get to hold Emma like she now held Neal. She had destroyed too many lives to ever expect to get a happy ending in life, yet she had allowed herself believe in the possibility which is why it hurt so much now.

"Can I hold him?" she asked suddenly.

Snow smiled, and stood up. "Of course."

She handed Neal over to her and as if she held babies all the time she accepted him into her arms and looked down at his smiling face.


	3. Chapter 3

Ruby tried to hide the smile when Regina walked into diner and ordered a coffee to go. It looks like Snow was successful in at least nudging Regina out of self-imposed isolation.

Now it was time to move on to step two – getting Emma to speak with Regina.

She had been giving this some thought but was unsure exactly how to get the two women to speak. Emma was sure that Regina would want nothing to do with her because of Robin and also was completely clueless to her own feelings about the brunette.

Still, an idea began to form in her mind.

It was a couple of days later when Emma came into the diner for her normal Wednesday lunch that Ruby embarked upon phase two of her plan.

She waited until Emma had come up to the counter to pay after eating.

"Hey can you do me a favor?" Ruby asked as she gave Emma her change.

"Sure what do you need?"

Ruby bent down and picked up a bag with containers in it. "Can you handle a delivery for me? Granny's at her monthly hair appointment and I'm already late in taking it."

"Since when do you deliveries here?" Emma asked as she peeked into the sack.

"Since I got paid a big tip to do it. So can you do it?"

"Yeah," Emma said, taking the handles. "Where am I taking it?"

"Mayor's office. It's for Regina."

Emma let go. "I don't think that is a good idea," she said. "Sorry."

"Come on," Ruby said. "Just drop it off to her secretary if you are that concerned about it. Please."

"Fine," Emma said grabbing it again. "I will leave it with her secretary, but maybe next time you shouldn't indulge her."

"I'm not indulging her. She isn't the one who made the order."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean she didn't order the food. Someone ordered it for her, paid me big to make sure she got it," Ruby said. "I think someone has a crush on our mayor."

"What?"

Ruby shrugged.

"What kind of guy tries to horn in on a woman who is still in mourning?" Emma said.

"Who said it was a guy?" Ruby said with a smile.

"Who is it?"

"I can't say, I was sworn to secrecy."

"Well this is ridiculous," Emma said. "She is in mourning over Robin. Besides Regina is particular about what she eats. Some random person giving her some random food is not going to bring her spirits up."

"This person must know her well enough because the order is definitely something Regina eats."

Emma looked down at the bag in her hand and Ruby could tell she was torn between wanting to return the bag to the counter and wanting to ask more questions. Then she abruptly walked out without saying another word, but Ruby was smiling as Emma took the bag with her which meant she would be making the delivery.

….

Regina was going over some paperwork on the new contract with the un-affiliated employees for the city when her secretary buzzed her to let her know Emma was there to see her. She hesitated a moment before telling her to send the sheriff in.

From the moment Emma walked in Regina could tell she was tense. Before the Underworld Emma would have walked in there with an easiness even when they were at odds. But now she appeared all straight backed like she was on a mission.

Regina was surprised that Emma was even there. Since they had gotten back they hadn't had much content unless they needed to for Henry.

"Sheriff," Regina said as Emma got closer.

Emma paused as soon as she said it and then came right up the desk and placed a bag down on the desk.

"What's this?"

"Late lunch," Emma said. She paused again. "I thought you might like something to eat, lunch I mean. Your secretary says you haven't left here all day and well … I thought you might like something to eat."

Is she nervous? Regina thought, because Emma was rocking back on her heels a bit and the way she was speaking wasn't exactly her normal linguistic pattern.

Regina reached for the bag and looked inside.

"It's um Granny's grilled chicken salad, dressing on the side and no croutons, just like you like it and a side plate of hummus with some fresh veggies."

"Thank you," Regina said. "And what made you think to bring me lunch?"

"Well like I said you hadn't left the office so I thought you might be hungry?"

"Yes, apparently my comings and goings seem to be on people's minds as of late," she said. "So was this really your idea or your mother's?"

"My mom's, why would you ask that?"

Regina could tell from Emma's reaction that it definitely hadn't been Snow's idea. "She came to see me recently, expressed her concern that I hadn't been out and about as of late," Regina said.

"Oh," Emma said. "I didn't know."

Regina believed her and was a little disappointed for reasons she didn't want to explore that Emma was unaware.

"Still, I appreciate that you thought of me," Regina said.

"I do think of you," Emma said. "I mean. I have thought about you and how you are doing. How are you doing?"

"I'm ok," Regina said, pausing. "I'm better."

"Good," Emma replied. "I should probably get going and let you get to your lunch."

Regina nodded. "Thank you, again."

"You're welcome."

….

When Ruby saw Emma walk back into Granny's less than a half an hour after leaving there to make the delivery she was worried, especially when Emma grabbed her arm and pulled her into the back.

"How much money did the person pay you to make that delivery to Regina?" Emma asked.

"Why?"

"Just, how much?"

"Twenty," Ruby said after a pause as she tried to figure out why she was being asked this and when she saw Emma fishing money out of her pocket she was even more confused.

"All I got it 11 dollars," Emma said handing it to her. "I'll get the rest of you today."

"What's this for?"

"For you to give back to whoever it is," Emma said. "Sorry about this, but you are going to have to tell them that it wasn't a good idea or that you don't do deliveries, or whatever."

"I don't understand, did you not make the delivery?"

"I did," Emma said, who wasn't looking Ruby in the eyes which made Ruby wonder what had happened.

"Then what is the problem? Did Regina get angry about it?"

"No," Emma said. "She appreciated it."

"Ok, I'm confused. What happened? Why am I returning this money?"

Emma sighed. "I sort of took credit for it."

"What?"

Emma stepped away from her, pacing in the small space they were standing. "I took it over there after looking at the bag in the car to make sure it was something that she would eat. Then I got there and I was chatting the secretary first to sort of gauge how Regina was doing and she said that Regina hadn't left for the day and to her knowledge she hadn't eaten lunch," Emma said. "So when I am allowed in and I give it to her, I just sort of told her I brought it for her."

"Why would you do that?"

"I don't know. I just … look whoever decided to do this for her, it's nice and all, but they shouldn't be bothering her, not yet," Emma said. "I think you should tell them that they should back off."

"Let me get this straight. You made the delivery, you took credit, Regina appreciated the food and you want me to tell the person who actually bought it to back off?"

"Yes," Emma said. "Like I said, I will get you the rest of the money, but I got to get back to work."

Emma walked out before Ruby could say anything, but Ruby was smiling. She had made up the whole secret admirer delivery thing to get Emma to at least be in the same room with Regina. Still this had gone better than she could have hoped for. Emma taking credit for the food would show Regina that Emma cared.

Now if Ruby could only get Emma to realize why she cared.


	4. Chapter 4

Dorothy laid down on the couch, resting her head on Ruby's lap.

"Ok, so what is the next part of the plan?" Dorothy asked.

"I'm not sure," Ruby said using her fingers to trail up and down Dorothy's arm. "I mean the whole lunch thing worked better than I thought it would but it didn't get them talking more than those few moments. It's been a week and the only thing else that Emma has done was asking me to make sure I told the mythical suitor to back off."

"Which you did," Dorothy said. "but since that is the only thing that seems to get Emma off her ass, then maybe it's time for the suitor to step up their game."

"Except there isn't a suitor."

"Emma doesn't know that."

"Correct, but it's not like I can make up an entire person and have them flirt with Regina."

"Then get a real person. Anyone here in town you would trust to let in on it?"

Ruby thought for a moment and then shook her head no.

"Plus we don't want to trick Regina, at least not much. She's already been hurt enough we don't want to toy with her feelings," Ruby said.

"Then what should we do?"

Ruby shrugged.

They stayed like that in silence for a while. Ruby couldn't believe that she had gotten as lucky as she had in finding Dorothy. She had never felt such ease just being with another person in complete quiet like this. Dorothy accepted all parts of her, even the wolf. And she never thought she would ever be able to experience that.

Emma and Regina deserved to have that in their lives. The two women had been through too much.

The problem was Ruby didn't really know what to do. Perhaps she should have given this more thought before even starting.

Dorothy sat up. "Flowers."

"What?"

"Let's send Regina flowers. We don't have to sign them as being from someone in particular. Just wish her a good day or something. Then we ensure Emma finds our someone sent her flowers," Dorothy said. "We don't have to say they are from an admirer or anything. If Emma is truly in love with her I'm sure anything she can think of about who sent them will be more powerful than anything we can make up. It will at least give us some more time to come up with something else."

Ruby considered it. "It's not a bad idea actually."

"Don't sound so surprised," she said playfully elbowing her. "Now that we have taken care of that, how about you and I retire for the evening."

"It's kind of early."

"I didn't say anything about sleeping," Dorothy leaned over and gave her a deep kiss before pulling away and pulling Ruby along with her.

…

When the flowers arrived at Regina's office, her first thought was that they were a simple arrangement, but beautiful. After she read the card attached, she was a little confused. All it said was, "I hope these brighten your day."

There was no signature on them so she had no idea who sent them.

She went about her work that day but every time her eye caught a glimpse of the flowers she wondered who could have sent them. Finally, she called the shop, asking who sent them, thinking maybe a mistake was made as there was no signature on the card. They told her that the person wished to remain anonymous, which only served to fuel Regina's suspicion.

While a part of her knew she should accept the flowers with grace no matter who they were from, a bigger part of her wanted to know the identity of someone who would send her flowers. Her list of suspects was extremely short – which she found depressing but not surprising. She may be accepted by many in this town but it didn't mean she was forgiven by all of them either.

Her list was simply Henry, Snow or possibly Emma. She discounted the idea of Snow almost immediately because she wasn't the best at keeping secrets to it was doubtful she would stay anonymous. That left Henry and Emma.

As the day wore on, the more confident she was that it was Henry.

It's not that she thought Emma incapable of it, after all the sheriff had brought her lunch about a week ago, but still something stopped her from being able to believe it was her. She hated that she even thought that.

Her and Emma had been getting along – the other woman actually wanted to be her friend. And they had gotten close, but then when they returned from the Underworld Emma was no where around. It was illogical for her to think Emma would be since she too had gone through a loss, although not in the way she had. Still if Hook hadn't decided to stay behind, Regina wondered if the two would be living together, talking about marriage to each other.

Honestly Regina had no idea if their relationship was on that path because Emma never spoke to her about such things. Now that she thought about it, Emma and she had never really spoken much about her and Robin either.

Close friends would talk about their significant others, but they didn't, so maybe they weren't as close as Regina had thought.

When Emma had brought her lunch, she could see how nervous she was and Regina was sad thinking that it would always be awkward and uncomfortable between them now. In the short years they had known each other they had come a long way and while it wasn't like when Emma was first in town, Regina feared it would never be like it was before the Underworld either.

By the time she got home she was sure Henry was behind the flowers and her new debate had become whether to thank him or not – since he apparently did want it to be a secret. They were eating dinner when she brought it up.

"Flowers were delivered to my office for me today," Regina said.

"Who sent them?" he asked immediately.

"They didn't sign the card, wanted it be anonymous," she said. "Still, they were quite lovely and brightened my day considerably so I'm very grateful for whoever did it."

She figured that would be the way to let him know she appreciated them without outright calling him out for spending his allowance on flowers for her.

"Who do you think sent them?"

"I don't know. Clearly it was someone who wanted to make me happy. Like I said, it was a very kind gesture and I wish I could thank the person."

Henry expression was not what she was expecting. He looked like he was thinking through a math problem.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No," he said. "I was wondering who sent them. I think it's cool they did it though."

"So it wasn't you?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Did you think it was me?" he asked.

"I thought maybe it was. The number of people in this town who would send me flowers isn't exactly a long list."

"People like you."

"Being tolerated isn't the same thing as being liked," she said. "I deserve it for the things I have done in my life. I understand that. I think that is probably why I enjoyed getting the flowers. It was nice to know someone was thinking of me. You seemed the most likely candidate."

"I wish I had," he smiled at her. "It's good to see you smile. You haven't done that lately."

"I know," she said. "But I'm getting better at it."

"It looks like we have no choice then, we need to find out who sent the flowers so you can thank them," he said. "What kind of flowers were they?"

"They were an assortment. Although in the center there was a sunflower that stood out."

Henry smiled at his mother's wistful look. "We'll call it Operation Sunflower then."

…

Henry was sitting up in bed that night when he texted Emma.

"Hey mom. We have a new operation."

"We do?" she texted back.

"Yes. Operation Sunflower."

"Ok. Fill me in."

"Someone sent mom flowers at her office today. Made her real happy. But they did it anonymously. She wants to find out who so she can thank them. There was a sunflower in the arrangement so Operation Sunflower. Are you in?"

Henry waited for a reply. Ten minutes passed and there was still no reply from her so he texted her again to make sure she got his last message.

When the reply came it simply said. "I sent them."

"Why would you send them anonymously?"

Another delayed response.

"I just want your mom to be happy, ok?"

"Ok. So should I tell her?"

"No."

"But I promised I would help her find out who the person is."

"Let me handle it, ok?"

"You'll tell her then?"

"Yes."

…

Ruby was surprised when Emma showed up about 10 minutes before the diner was open, beating on the door until she let her in.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked as Emma stormed in.  
"Who is this person that wanted you to have lunch delivered to Regina?"

"I told you I can't tell you that."

"I know but you also told me that you told them to back off and it was too soon for them to be moving in on Regina. Well, whoever it is didn't get the message so I need you to tell me who it is that way I can deliver the message in a way that will ensure they get it."

Emma was pacing unable to calm down. Ruby was pretty sure if this supposed suitor was in front of Emma right now, she would be punching them.

"Whoa, hold on, what's this all about?"

Emma stopped in front of her. "Whoever this guy is …"

"Never said it was a guy," Ruby interrupted.  
"Whoever this person is, they sent Regina flowers yesterday."

Ruby could see that Emma was still angry but she was also staring at her like she should be reacting some way in particular.

"And this is a bad thing?" Ruby said after a pause.

"Yes, it's a bad thing." Emma began to pace again. "When you told them to back off, they should have backed off. How exactly did you tell them this? Did you explain to them why it was a bad time to pull this shit?"

"We didn't really get into it much," Ruby said trying to keep it as vague as possible, although as riled up as Emma appeared to be she wasn't sure she could detect a lie at this point. "Look what do you want me to do?"

"Tell me who this person is so I can take care of it."

"I don't think that's good idea."

"Well you need to tell me before Regina figures it out."

"What do you mean?"

"Henry texted me last night and told me about the flowers and how happy Regina was to get them. He promised to help her find out who it was in some operation called sunflower because apparently there was a sunflower in the arrangement."

"Oh. So she is actively trying to find the person?"

"Not exactly," Emma said stopping again and biting her lower lip.

"What do you mean by not exactly?"

This time it was Emma pausing before answering. "I sort of told him I was the one who sent them and that I would fess up to it to Regina.."

Ruby laughed, not intending to, but she couldn't believe Emma had done it again – taken credit for something she hadn't done all because of Regina. She has got it bad for the mayor, she thought.

"This isn't funny," Emma said, as crossing her arms. "She shouldn't be bothered by some jackass who is too much of a coward to even speak openly with her. Anonymous flowers, who does that? No, Regina doesn't need someone stalking her from the shadows. Now do you see why you need to tell me who this person is?"

Ruby wasn't sure how Emma made the leap to stalker, but she was going to give her friend a pass on that one as she wasn't thinking logically.

"I will speak to them again."

"Not good enough."

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then let me handle it."

She could tell Emma did not want to agree to this, but she finally nodded. "Talk to them today, please," she said before turning to leave as the first customer of the day came in.

Ruby went around the counter.  
"What are you up to?" Granny asked her.

"Nothing."

Granny sighed. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that. Now what are you doing and what does it have to do with Emma and Regina?'

"We've got customers," Ruby said.

"Fine, but we aren't done talking about this. I'm old enough to know scheming when I see it," Granny said.

"It's nothing bad, I promise."

"Better not be."

…

Ruby was thankful when Dorothy came to see her on her break. Not only did she want to see her girlfriend, but she needed to fill her in on what had happened that morning. Pulling her into the back room she gave her a kiss before launching into the story.

"Wow, she has got it bad," Dorothy said.

"I know I thought the exact same thing," Ruby said. "Now we just need to figure out how to get Emma to actually stop getting angry at this made up suitor and do something to step up her own claim on Regina."

"That's easy. Emma already said she was going to admit to being the one who sent the flowers, so force her to do so by telling her that you spoke to this mystery person and they aren't going to back down, in fact they are going to send her more flowers tomorrow. It will make Emma tell her before they are delivered and she will have to admit to sending the new ones too. Except this time, you write something on the card about wanting to go out with Regina. And there you have it, Emma won't be able to back down at that point."

Both women turned toward the voice that had just said that, seeing Granny standing there in the doorway.

"What? I have a wolf's ears and getting Emma and Regina together will take forever if I leave it up to you two," Granny said, as she turned away. "Amateurs."


	5. Chapter 5

Ruby was pacing with her phone in her hand, as Dorothy sat there watching her. She had been trying to work up the courage to call Emma. She knew she needed to and knew she needed to do it soon as they had already placed the order to have more flowers delivered tomorrow.

But after the way Emma reacted this morning she didn't think this would a simple conversation. Emma was going to demand to know who this mysterious suitor was at this point even more than she already had.

"Do you want me to call her?" Dorothy asked finally. "She doesn't know me well enough to try and interrogate me."

"No, I got this," Ruby said. "I know the goal is to get them to realize they have feelings for each other; I just wish it would be easier than all of this. How do they not see it on their own?"

Dorothy got up and pulled Ruby down on the couch with her. "Love is scary. When we shared true love's kiss, weren't you a little scared and overwhelmed by it all. For me it was like jumping to the marriage stage with someone you hadn't even dated. Even with true love's kiss, I was scared that I would mess this up or I don't know that you wouldn't like me or something. There was uncertainty. I love you so much and I don't want to mess this up whether we are destined to be together or not. For them, it's probably no different. They don't see what others can see because they are afraid to see it. When you recognize and accept your feelings for another person it changes everything about the dynamic you have with them. For those two, it will be a big change."

Ruby gave her a kiss. She had no idea how this amazing woman had the ability to so easily calm her down.

"I love you," Ruby said, giving her another kiss before standing up and finally dialing Emma.

"Did you talk to them?" Emma said immediately without any preamble.

"I did," Ruby said. "And while they said they appreciated my advice, they have decided to and I quote 'work to make Regina see she can have a happy ending.'"

Ruby knew about how Emma had sworn to help Regina find her happy ending so she knew this particular phrasing would rile Emma up.

"What the hell?" Emma said. "That's it, you have to tell me who they are. I will take care of this."

"Emma, I can't, and before you say anything else, I can't tell you why either, so don't ask."

"No, you have to tell me. Come on, this person could pose a danger to Regina. Happy ending – what did they even mean by that? That could be some veiled threat to her life ending."

Ruby couldn't believe that had just came out of Emma's mouth. Was she that clueless as to why she was reacting like this.

"They aren't a danger," Ruby said. "It's not like that. She just sees how sad Regina has been and wants to reassure her."

"She?" Emma said after a pause. "Wait, this is a woman?"

"Yes."

There was another pause and Ruby almost wondered if the call had been dropped due to all the silence.

"She plans on sending more flowers to Regina tomorrow, just so you know."

More silence.

"Emma?"

"Yeah," she said. "Um, ok, well, thanks for telling me."

"What are you going to do?"

"Nothing. You said this woman isn't a threat to Regina and that's my only concern."

"Ok, well, I just thought you should know."

"Thanks, I got to go."

The call ended and Ruby looked at Dorothy. "Emma said she isn't going to do anything."

"Why not?"

"I'm not sure. She seemed really surprised when I mentioned the person was a woman and then when I said they were sending Regina more flowers Emma said as long as the woman wasn't a threat to Regina that was her only concern."

"That's kind of odd, isn't it? She's been pretty gung-ho about all of this so far and now she's backing down."

"Maybe we pushed it a little too far," Ruby said.

….

Emma tried to concentrate on the paperwork in front of her, but found she was having to re-read every sentence before it made any sense to her. She got up and stretched, heading over to get a refill on her coffee that had long since gone cold.

She had skipped her morning trip into Granny's, not really wanting to see Ruby because she knew if she did she wouldn't be able to keep herself from asking her about this mystery woman who was after Regina.

While she didn't know everyone in this town, she had spent a good portion of her evening going through every woman in her mind that she did know and weighing the options of if they could be the one. The problem was no one was coming to mind.

She felt fairly certain that if someone had been paying that much attention to Regina then she would have noticed. Then again, it wasn't like she had been around Regina much since the Underworld.

There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't feel regret over it and she wondered if it would always be that way. Perhaps if this mystery woman was Regina's happy ending then she wouldn't feel so much guilt because it would mean there was still a chance for the former Evil Queen to come full circle.

No sooner had she filled up her cup with subpar coffee and turned to go back to her office when she saw Regina coming toward her.

"We need to talk," Regina said.

Not waiting for a reply, Regina led the way back to Emma's office and shut the door once they were both inside.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked, not even taking a seat.

"Someone has sent me flowers, twice now at my office, both times anonymously," Regina said. "At first I thought it was nice. I even thought maybe Henry had sent them to cheer me up, but it wasn't him. Today, I got another vase of assorted flowers and the card on it this time was asking me out on a date."

Emma wasn't sure if she was supposed to say anything or not but Regina had stopped talking and was now looking at her as if she was supposed to be saying something.

"Did you hear what I said?" Regina said when Emma continued to just stand there.

"Yes," Emma said finally.

"And?"

"And what? I'm not sure what you are asking me or are you asking me anything?"

Regina huffed out a breath and sat down and Emma also took her seat.

"Don't you think it a bit odd?" Regina said. "I haven't exactly been a social butterfly as of late, so who would be taking an interest in me now? And what is with this anonymous stuff? Do they really think that I'm going to just say yes to going out with someone when I don't even know who they are?"

"I know that is sketchy isn't it?" Emma said. "I told Ruby this woman could be a psycho and a danger to you, sending flowers to you like it's some romantic gesture."

"Wait," Regina said. "What does Ruby have to do with this? And how do you know it's a woman? How do you know anything about this?"

Emma realized she was in so much trouble the moment she had finished talking. This is why she had decided she was going to stay out of it because she knew she couldn't lie to Regina. And now her big mouth had also dragged Ruby into it.

"Um …"

"I'm waiting," Regina said.

Emma got to her feet quickly. "It's not what you think."  
"I don't know what I'm thinking except you are suddenly acting strangely."

"Look, the other day when I brought you the food, well, I lied. It wasn't me who bought the food. It was this secret admirer of yours," Emma said. "But then I took credit for it because I didn't think anyone should be bothering you, you know, and so I told Ruby to give the person back their money and tell them to back off. They didn't because then they sent you the flowers. So I went to Ruby again but she wouldn't tell me who it was because I was going to tell them to leave you alone. And again they refused and told Ruby they were going to send you more flowers. I tried to get her to tell me who it is, but I guess she gave this woman her word that she wouldn't."

"Ruby knows who this woman is then?"

"Yes.

"Ok, well then, she is the one I should be speaking to," Regina said, standing up. "Sorry for interrupting your work Miss Swan."

"Whoa," Emma said, as Regina was opening the door. "You weren't interrupting me or anything. Do you want me to go with you to talk with Ruby? You know what, I'll just go with you."

"It's not really necessary," Regina replied.

"No, it's no trouble. Besides what if this person is dangerous? I should be there to find out who they are and make sure you are alright," Emma said, grabbing her red jacket and putting it on. "Let's go."

…

Dorothy answered the door and immediately turned back around leaving it open for the two women to walk in.

"Ruby, we have company – the mayor and the sheriff," she said.

Ruby came into view and paused, "Emma, Regina, how are you this evening?" Even as she said it, she could tell Regina looked anything but pleased and Emma sort of had an 'I'm sorry' look on her face.

"Miss Lucas, I understand you know the identity of the person who has sent me flowers twice now," Regina said. "I would appreciate it if you would tell me who it is."

She crossed her arms in front of her to make sure that Ruby knew she meant business, but Ruby wasn't looking at her, she was looking at Emma.

"Just tell us who it is," Emma said. "Like I told you before this woman could pose a danger to Regina."

No one expected what happened next as Dorothy started laughing and all eyes turned to her.

"Ruby and I sent the flowers," Dorothy said.

"Excuse me?" Regina said, at the same Emma asked, "What?"

Dorothy came to stand beside Ruby. "We did it for her," Dorothy said, pointing at Emma. "And for you too Regina."

Emma and Regina exchanged a look and then turned to Ruby, "what is she talking about?" Emma asked.

"You two um … ever since the Underworld you have both been sad and well it was … it was a stupid idea, granted, but we weren't really sure what to do and …" Ruby looked to Dorothy for help.

"Emma you like Regina. Regina, well I don't know you well, but Ruby at least thinks you like Emma and so we had to find some way to get you two out of your funk," Dorothy explained. "Maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved at all but clearly you two weren't going to ever make a move."

Regina laughed. "You are joking, right? Me and Miss Swan," Regina said. "What would ever give you such an outrageous idea?"

Both Dorothy and Ruby looked at Emma, which caused Regina to look at her.

"What?" Emma said. "I never said a word about that night we had sex."

Regina slapped Emma's arm as gasps came from Dorothy and Ruby.

"You two had sex," Ruby said. "How could you not tell me something like this? This is exactly the thing you tell your best friend."

"No, this isn't something you tell anyone," Regina said.

"Sorry," Emma said. "It just sort of came out."

"Wait, back up, you two have already had sex," Dorothy said. "This is a story we must hear."

"Yes, was this before or after the Underworld?" Ruby asked.

"Before," Emma said.

Regina slapped her again. "This is not a story for public consumption."

"Oh hell no, we are totally hearing this," Ruby said grabbing Emma's arm and pulling her over to the couch.

"She's going to get it out of her one way or the other," Dorothy said smiling. "You might as well stay and offer your version of events."

Regina paused only a moment before following Dorothy into the main room.


	6. Chapter 6

The four women settled into their seats – Ruby on the couch with Emma and Dorothy and Regina taking the chair.

"Spill it," Ruby said.

Emma glanced over at Regina first before speaking, "I really don't think we should be talking about this, what happened between us is private."

"I think we have already established that this story is getting told," Ruby said.

Emma again made eye contact with Regina. "Oh no dearie, you are the one who opened their mouth," Regina said. "Besides, I think I would like to hear your version of events."

If Emma didn't already think this was a bad idea, she definitely thought it was a bad idea now. It's not that she and Regina hadn't talked after it had happened, but the result of that talk was essentially, let's never speak of this again.

"I'm not really sure where to start," Emma said.

"At the beginning is generally where these things start," Dorothy said.

"It probably starts back after I had brought Marian back from the past," Emma said. She paused and looked from Dorothy to Ruby. "Does she know about all of this?"

"Oh yeah," Ruby said. "I have given her the low down on everyone in this town. Details might not be there, but she knows enough to follow along."

"I shudder to think what stories you have been telling her," Regina commented.

"Well, she said black is definitely your color," Dorothy said, causing Regina to give Ruby an appraising look.

"Anyway," Emma said. "Before I brought Marian back, I think Regina and I had finally turned a corner on our relationship, not to say that we had a relationship, but you know we were getting along better than we had. Then Marian happened and it sort of fell apart a little bit after that. It's not like I knew who Marian was or anything. I didn't do it on purpose to hurt or anything like that. I wouldn't do that."  
"I think they get the point," Regina said.

"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you knew it too," Emma said. "Since we never really talked about it right after, mostly because you didn't want to see me right after it happened."

"I know you didn't do it on purpose. I knew it even back then," Regina conceded. "It was just …"

"Just what?" Emma asked.

Dorothy and Ruby were enraptured by the undercurrent that seemed to be happening between the two women. Both of them were again thinking, how could these two women not see their own connection.

"Nothing," Regina said, waving off the question. "You should probably continue your story. Some of us don't have all night."

Emma reluctantly turned toward her audience once more. "This was also the time that my magic began to get out of whack. I needed help before I did something dangerous and so I turned to the one person I trusted to help me with it, Regina. I was turning to her a lot back then because things weren't going so well with my parents at the time when I learned the things they had done that involved the darkness inside of me."

"They only did what they thought was right," Ruby said. "I'm not saying they were right, but you don't know what lengths you will go to for your child I guess until you have one. And you all were able to move past it."

"We did," Emma said. "But it took a while."

"So when did you two have sex?" Dorothy asked.

Even Ruby gave her a look for that blunt question.

"What?" Dorothy asked. "That is what we are trying to find out and clearly you all have this back story that while I know some of it, I wasn't here for it."

"Sorry, if we are boring you, we could just leave," Regina offered.

Dorothy didn't say anything and Emma took that as her sign to continue.

"Regina was headed out of town to warn Robin and I needed to find Lily," Emma said. "We ended up going in what I am pretty sure is the last time she and I will ever road trip together again."

"At least the last time I let you drive," Regina said.

"It wasn't all that bad," Emma said. "In fact, I thought we were getting along really well. It was the first time that you and I had really spent an extended amount of time together alone where we weren't working toward saving the town from the next disaster."

"We did get the chance to talk," Regina admitted. "So, no, it wasn't all bad."

"Yeah, I think we learned more about each other in those hours than we had in the years of knowing each other."

Dorothy turned to Ruby with a smile. These two were clueless but cute, Dorothy thought.

"We had tracked Lily down but we still had a ways to drive so we ended up spending the night at a hotel," Emma said. "It was a top shelf kind of place because the queen over here refused to stay in a motel. The restaurant was something else too. Probably the best steak I had ever had and the roasted red potatoes were amazing. I don't know what spices they used on those things but they were perfect. And I don't typically like asparagus but this was like another level of good."

"Before you start describing dessert, perhaps you should get on with it for brevity's sake," Regina said.

"I thought maybe you would want to delay this next part," Emma said.

"And why is that?"

"Well, it's not like you were at your best."

"Really, because that is not how I remember it."

"Oh," Emma smiled, "Is that so? Because what I remember is someone losing."

"No, I remember someone cheating."

"I didn't cheat," Emma laughed.

"You can't even say that with a straight face," Regina countered.

"I won fair and square."  
"You cheated," Regina said. "I don't see why you can't admit it. You were drinking watered down drinks. While I on the other hand was not."  
"You two got into a drinking contest?" Ruby said.

"It wasn't much of a contest," Emma said. "Turns out Regina is a bit of a light weight when it comes to the hard stuff."

"I spoke to the bartender," Regina said. "He told me you ordered double shots in my drinks."

"Ok, ok, I may have done that to a couple of drinks. You were being a little tense and I thought you might needs to loosen up a bit."

"So, you got Regina drunk and you two had sex," Ruby offered. "Not really that great of a story."

"Give me a little more credit than that," Emma said.

"Forget her, give me a little more credit than that," Regina said. "I don't get drunk and have one-night stands."

"Is that how you view it?" Emma asked. "That we had a one-night stand?"

There was slight hesitation before Regina licked her lips, and said. "Well, it only happened the once did it not?"

"Yeah," Emma said, standing up. "And whose decision was that?" Before anything else could be said, Emma abruptly left, but Ruby was quickly following her out.


	7. Chapter 7

Regina rose and began walking toward the door.

"Are you going after her?" Dorothy asked.

"No," Regina said.

"Why not?"

Regina turned to look at her. "Why do you care if I do? Why do you care about any of this?"

Dorothy shrugged. "I don't know. I just do," she said. "I found my true love, or rather she found me, and I saw Emma and I got the wrong idea of who she was and what she wanted."  
"What do you mean?"

Dorothy explained how she thought Emma might be interested in Ruby or else have a problem with Dorothy and Ruby being in a relationship together, only for Ruby to discover that Emma had feelings for Regina.

"She doesn't have feelings for me," Regina said.

"Oh yeah, well, people don't normally storm out like that because something meaningless happened," Dorothy said. "Plus, I saw you two, right here, when you were talking. There is something there between the two of you and I think it's more than just having had sex."

"Yes, well, she went to the Underworld for Hook," Regina said. "So there goes that theory. He is who she cared about."

Again she turned toward the door. When she reached it and opened it, Dorothy said, "You're wrong."

"And you were wrong to interfere with this at all."

With that she walked out.

…

Ruby managed to get into Emma's car before she took off. She had been calling Emma's name since she left the apartment but Emma had ignored her – apparently wanting to get out of there without further talking.

Emma was already driving before Ruby could say anything and she wasn't the one who spoke first.

"Why couldn't have left good enough alone?" Emma said. "Regina and I were just fine, but you had to go and interfere."

"Oh, your definition of just fine is you two practically ignoring each other?"

"It works for us."

"You are both very unhappy people, so no, I don't think it works for either of you," Ruby said. "And as far as why I couldn't leave it alone, I couldn't leave it alone because you are my friend Emma and when you see a friend unhappy you do what you can to make them happy. For you, I think that happiness might be with Regina."

Emma concentrated on her driving, trying to ignore Ruby and thoughts of Regina, but suddenly she slowed the car and pulled over and parked,

"It doesn't matter what I feel for Regina, she doesn't feel the same for me," Emma said. "When we made love I thought things would change between us. We had gotten closer before it and I thought we would only grow closer after that. Especially with Robin basically rejecting her, I thought this was my chance."

"Wait, back up. Tell me how you two ended up having sex," Ruby said, even though she had taken a mental note that Emma had said "made love," just a moment ago.

Emma appeared to be debating whether this was a story she should tell or not. She gave a small sigh before speaking, "We were both pretty drunk that night, although she was worse off than I was. I may have cheated a little bit, but I figured this was my one and only shot to ever see her drunk," Emma said. "Plus one of us needed to be at least sober enough to find our rooms again. I got her to her room and went in with her to make sure she got settled down."

"How drunk was she?"

"Oh, I was practically carrying her, that is how drunk she was."

"Damn, that was probably a sight to see."

"It was," Emma said with a slight smile. "Although I would have been in the same shape if I hadn't been drinking water instead of shots at points. Anyway, I got her into her bed and then I went to my room and hit my own bed, barely taking the time to change clothes.

"The next morning there was a knock on my door that woke me up and I got to the bed already wishing for some aspirin. Of course, it was Regina at my door, already dressed to the nines and looking like she hadn't drunk a drop the night before," Emma continued.

 _"It's time to check out," Regina said._

 _"What time is it?" Emma asked, leaning against the door._

 _"10, we need to check out by 11," she said._

 _Emma groaned, and moved away from the door and Regina followed her in, shutting the door behind her._

 _"How are you up and walking around?" Emma said._

 _"Clean living."_

 _Emma turned to give her an upraised eyebrow. "You were dead drunk last night, no amount of clean living will clear that up this well."_

 _"First of all, I wasn't dead drunk. And my drunkenness was your fault," Regina said. "But despite, how I may look, I am no hurry to put anything in my stomach."_

 _"That's more like it," Emma said. "I'm going to take a quick shower."_

 _"Take your time," Regina said. "I can always pay for another night."_

 _Emma had been on her way to the bathroom but Regina saying that made her turn back._

 _"What's wrong?" Emma asked._

 _"Nothing."_

 _"Come on, don't give me that. Remember, I know when you are lying," Emma said._

 _Regina shrugged and ended up taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "When do you think this will all stop?"_

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _"I don't know," Regina said. "I'm just tired. Tired of all of it. Is it too much to ask for a simple life?"_

 _Emma came over and took a seat beside her. "It's not too much to ask for," she said. "Although, I can see why you would feel like you do. I feel it too. Ever since I came to Storybrooke it seems like it has been one thing after another and there has barely been time to breathe. Can I ask you something?"_

 _Regina nodded._

 _"What do you want for your life? What is your happy ending?"_

 _Regina was taken aback by the question. Outside of her father, she didn't think anyone had ever asked her what she wanted out of her life._

 _Laughter was not what Emma was expecting as a response._

 _"Sorry," Regina said after composing herself. "I just, I don't know how to answer that question. I know I want my son in my life and I never want to go back to the days where he looked at me like the Evil Queen, but other than that, I don't know. What do you want for your life?"_

 _"You didn't mention Robin." Emma said, ignoring the question directed at her. "Don't you want your soul mate to be part of your life?"_

 _"What does that even mean? Soul mate I mean. I get it with your parents, I really do. I have seen them together and they are so sickeningly in love with each other. That's not Robin and I. Do I care for him? Yes, I do," Regina said. "But is he someone I love so much that I can't live a life without him? I don't know. I think I can, so what does that mean if I can see a life without him and he is supposed to be my soul mate? I walked away from that once before, and I could do it again."_

 _"I don't know about soul mates either," Emma said. "Killian thinks he and I are made for each other or something. He keeps talking like the future is set for him and me."_

 _"You don't believe that though?"_

 _"I guess I'm kind of on the same thought process as you, that I can see my life without him."_

 _"Well I said it before, you are too good for him."_

 _"You really believe that don't you?"_

 _"Yes, and hopefully one of these days you will believe it too," Regina said._

 _"I get that he wasn't the best person in his life, but I do think he wants to change for the better," Emma said. "I admire that. Lord knows I've made terrible decisions in my past and I don't want that to define who I am in the future. I've seen you change – I've seen you change a lot, and I admire that about you, probably more than you know."_

 _"Thank you, that means a lot coming from you," Regina said. "I think I might be more self-aware at this point in my life, more so than at any other point in my life. I know I have this darkness in me, but I'm not willing to let it dominate my life like it once did. I can't go back to being her, the Evil Queen."_

 _"You won't ever be her again," Emma said. "You won't let yourself give into that darkness ever again. I wouldn't let you either. Face it, no matter what you may want for your life, you're stuck with me being a part of it."_

 _Emma smiled at her and nudged her a bit._

 _"I'm ok with that," Regina said, returning her smile._

 _There was a moment where neither woman spoke but continued to look into each other's eyes. It was Emma who made the move first, leaning in and letting her lips barely brush Regina's but it was Regina who took that and pressed her lips more firmly to Emma's._

"Wait, I don't get details?" Ruby said.

"No," Emma said. "You don't get details. The specifics of what happened between her and I will stay between her and I."

"Ok, fine, so what happened next. You said she was the one who made the decision that it would just be the one time."

"It wasn't like that exactly. It's really just as much my fault as it was hers. Things just got out of control after that – finding Lily, becoming the Dark One, going to the Underworld and it's not like this is the first time it was brought up, it's just …"

"Just what?"

Emma turned even more toward Ruby. "I became the Dark One for Regina. I couldn't let it take her and turn her into the Evil Queen again. I wasn't thinking of saving the town or anything like that, I was only thinking of her. And I was at peace with that decision. I'm still at peace with that decision. But when I was the Dark One, I may have brought up the whole having sex thing to her in an inappropriate way."

"How inappropriate?"

Emma glanced at the window and then back at Ruby. "I might have suggested we have sex again and I sort of did it in an aggressive manner," Emma said. "She of course turned me down. I'm glad she did because things would be even more awkward between us now if she and I had sex while I was like that. Then there was a moment when we were in the Underworld and I brought it up again – not wanting to have sex with her, but the fact we had sex. She said that now wasn't the time to talk about it and I told her I needed to talk about it, that I wanted to talk about it."

"What did she say?"

"She reminded me that we were in the Underworld to find Killian. See, so she wouldn't even let us talk about it."

"Or maybe she was just unwilling to talk about while in the Underworld looking for your boyfriend," Ruby said.

"What so this is my fault for wanting to save him when I was the reason he was there? Besides, she had Robin back despite saying she was ready to move on from him. What was I supposed to do?"

Ruby let the it was Emma's fault that Killian was in the Underworld slide, and instead focused on the issue at hand. "All I'm saying is that the two times you have brought this up with her were under not ideal circumstances," Ruby said. "But there is clearly an attraction there between the two of you, and I think it goes beyond that. I think you two have honest feelings for each other. I saw you two in there together and it's not only you who has those feelings. So, if Regina is who you want then you need to make that decision that you want to be with her and then do everything you to get what you want. The only question is, do you want Regina?"

"Yes, yes, I do."


	8. Chapter 8

Emma was certain this was a bad idea, so certain that she almost walked back to her car despite being up on Regina's porch. She couldn't believe she let Ruby talk her into this she thought as she rang the doorbell.

She had purposely chosen this time because she knew Regina was home alone as Henry was off with her dad. Still when Regina answered the door she suddenly found she had no idea what to say despite rehearsing it – at least in her head – before she got there.

"Sheriff, are you feeling alright?" Regina asked after she had already given her a 'Miss Swan' greeting and Emma had continued to stand there not saying anything.

"What? No, yes, I mean no. Can I come in?" Emma rattled off quickly.

Regina didn't say anything but she did step aside for Emma to enter.

"Thanks," Emma said as Regina shut the door behind them. "I was hoping we could talk about what happened the other day."

"I don't think that is necessary. In fact, I have already put it out of mind," Regina said, crossing her arms. Emma recognized the move as one Regina did when she was ready to put all her walls up.

"It might not be necessary but I want to talk about it."

"Why?" Regina asked. "Do you feel the need the apologize for sharing that tidbit of information with Miss Lucas and Miss Gale? If so, fine, I accept your apology. Have a good day."

Regina made a move to open the door but Emma slid in between it and her.

"Firstly, yes, I apologize for just blurting that out," Emma said. "But I also apologize for letting this linger in between us for all this time. We should have talked about this long before now."

"Forgive me if I see no reason to rehash it," Regina said. "This is after all not the first time you have gotten me alone to talk about it. I think you made yourself very clear that you view sex with me as something you wouldn't mind doing again. But as for me, I think I will pass."

"That's not fair," Emma said. "You can't hold what I did when I was the Dark One against me like that. That wasn't me."

"It was partly you," Regina said.

Emma couldn't exactly argue that point. Yes, she found Regina attractive but she hadn't expected that attraction to be given new life when she became the Dark One. When she was under the grip of the Dark One she hadn't been interested in talking about when they had sex, she had only been interested in re-enacting it.

And while she had been a little aggressive about it, Emma could only thank whatever resolve she had the time to pull back from it so she didn't do something she would really have regretted.

"Ok, I can apologize for that. I can apologize for anything you want me to apologize for," Emma said. "Just don't blow me off. Regina, I like you. I like you a lot and the reason I'm here is because I want to see if you will go on a date with me."

There, Emma thought, she had managed to say it.

"Absolutely not," Regina said.

"Well don't take a second or two to think about it or anything."

"I don't need to take the time to think about it, the answer would still be no."

"Why?"

"Are you joking? I really can't tell sometimes with you," Regina said.

"No, I'm not joking," Emma said. "Are you telling me you have absolutely no interest in me whatsoever because I know that's not true. So, what is so wrong about us going on a date?"

Regina opened her mouth to say something and then seemed to think better of it and then repeated the action.

"See," Emma said smiling and pointing at her. "You don't have a reason why we shouldn't go on a date."

"I have plenty," Regina countered. "They are just so numerous it's hard to pick just one. Plus, I don't want to hurt your ego by enumerating on them."

Regina moved away from her but Emma moved along with her. "I'm not saying we should start fresh or anything stupid like that. But maybe we could start where we should have started in the first place before things got all muddled between us."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean before we had sex, we should have gone on a date. We … I should have asked you out a long time ago. I should have let you know I was interested instead of wasting my time with Killian."

This got Regina's attention, but not in the way Emma hoped.

"Are you saying this because of his decision to stay behind after you risked everything, including our son, to bring him back? Am I to be your second pick because the one you want is now out of reach? I'm not interested in dating you while you pine away for that pirate."

"I'm not pining away for Killian," Emma said. "He made his decision and I am at peace with it. In fact, if he had chosen to return here I'm certain you and I would still be having this conversation."

"You think so?"

"Yes, because we need to have it. Can you really stand there and tell me you feel absolutely nothing for me?"

As soon as Regina didn't answer immediately, Emma knew she had her.

"Come on," Emma said. "It's one date to see how thing go between us. You know you want to."

"I know nothing of the sort."

"Please, Regina. Let's just do it and see how it goes."

"I believe we played that game already and it didn't go anywhere."

Emma gave out a frustrated sigh. "I know you are making this purposefully difficult, but I'm not giving up. I can stay here all day."

Regina moved past her to open the door, holding it for her. "Leave now Miss Swan."

Emma moved to the door as if to walk out but paused in front of Regina. "Ok, I'll go," Emma said. "But offer still stands. And yes, I'll be back to ask again and again."

Emma smiled at her, feeling more confident than she had when she first showed up there, and then she walked out.

…

Dorothy was more than a little perplexed as to how Regina even knew her number and even more bewildered by why she had been summoned to the mayor's office.

Outside of speaking with her that one time and what Ruby had told her, she didn't actually know Regina.

Yet, here she was going in after the secretary told her she could.

"Miss Gale, thank you for coming," Regina said. "Please take a seat."

Dorothy took a seat in front of the desk. "I have to say I was surprised to get your call," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Miss Swan, she showed up at my house yesterday," Regina said. "She um … she asked me out on a date."

"Oh," Dorothy said. She knew Ruby had been trying to talk Emma into it but she hadn't realized she was successful. "What did you say to her?"

"I told her no of course."

"Ok," Dorothy said, still confused. "So, why am I here?"

"You are here because you and I don't know each other," Regina said, standing up and walking over to the window which she looked out of for a moment before turning back toward Dorothy. "I'm sure Miss Lucas has informed you of my colorful background so I can only imagine what you must think of me."

"Stop," Dorothy interrupted. "Let me tell you a little bit about myself. First off, call me Dorothy, not Miss Gale. Secondly, yes, Ruby has told me about you and others in this town, but I form my own opinions about people based on my own interactions not stories I have heard. Now, let's start from there ok? Why am I here?"

"You said Emma has feelings for me, why do you think that?"

"I don't think it, I know it," Dorothy said. "I can see it. Just like I can see you have feelings for her. The way you two were talking the other night, it was just obvious. I guess a better question would be why did you say no to her when she asked you out? Is it because you truly believe she doesn't have feelings for you or are you trying to dismiss the fact that you have feelings for her?"

Regina again looked outside, something Dorothy figured she was doing to either collect her thoughts or to delay from speaking those thoughts.

"I don't know really know what dating entails," Regina said looking back at her.

"What do you mean you don't know what dating entails?" Dorothy asked.

"I haven't really done much dating." Regina said. "Daniel and I couldn't really date because of my mother. I married the king because I was forced to, so my dating experience is extremely limited."  
"What about Robin?"

Regina sort of shrugged. "We were supposed to be soulmates, you don't really have to figure out the whole dating thing when that is built in. You probably understand a little about what that is like seeing as you got your true love without the dating process."  
"True," Dorothy said. "But just because she is my true love doesn't mean that we don't go on dates and still have a lot to learn about each other. I guess, knowing she is my true love takes a little bit of the pressure off of the whole end game thing, but not all of the pressure. I still feel like things could get messed up you know. Is that what you are afraid of with Emma, that it could get messed up?"

Regina came closer to her, leaning against the edge of her desk. "How do you do it then?"

"Do what? Date?" Dorothy said. "Are you asking me for dating tips?"

"Yes, Miss Gale."

"Dorothy," she said. "Call me Dorothy. And first dating tip, don't call Emma Miss Swan."


End file.
